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BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Nov. (UPI) Two ethnic Albanians have been jailed Friday for 20 months each by the district court in Leskovac on charges of conspiracy to carry out hostile activity against Yugoslavia.
Ramiz Berisha, 51, and Hima Shala, 54, both of the village of Celopek near Pec, were indicted for setting up a unit of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army in the Muslim religious school in their village in June 1998.
Berisha, who was appointed commander of the unit, and Shala recruited new members of the KLA and distributed arms they brought from Albania to the villagers.
The two were arrested in the fall of 1998.
Their attorney, Ilija Radulovic, said the two defendants were innocent. Radulovic said they had been forced to join the KLA by other members who threatened to kill their families if they refused.